sub-3 or blow-up trying

I was a little frustrated today.  The plan was to do a 20-miler and hold a slow marathon pace until it was no longer comfortable.  Felt great for the first 7-8 miles before the achilles began to act up a bit.  Had held just under a 7:15 pace through 9 miles and then felt the need to slow down part way through the 10th mile.  It's not a sharp pain, yet it becomes almost impossible to run faster than 9-10min pace after 10miles or so.  Decided at the end of the 12 mile loop to shut it down and complete the final 8 miles later. 

Ran 12.75 miles- the first 11 @ about an 8:40 pace and then closer to 10min pace for the last couple. 

Started off by running 3-miles at a slow mp (7:22,7:20,7:13/uphill) and then jogged .5 miles before transitioning into fast mp (6:49,6:38/downhill,6:17/2nd half uphill), jogged another .5 and then gave a shot at a threshold mile (6:08) and kept the final mile to a slow jog- 9.5 miles total.  Achilles a little sore, yet better than the last 2 months and I'm determined to just battle it through. 

TM workout:  2-mile warm-up, 6x800 @ 6min pace, and then a "cooldown" for 7 miles total.

Jogged 4.25 miles to the track and watched my 2 jr. high school girls compete in cross-country.  My oldest came in 4th with a pr of 30 seconds and my 2nd oldest was the fastest 7th grader with a pr of 70 seconds.  Left the meet by taking an 8-mile route home- 12.25 miles total @ about a 9:15 pace.  

20minutes weights + 6miles on TM @ 9:22 pace. 

Ran 8.65 miles @ just over a 9min pace. 

Ran 2.25 miles to the track.  It was in the mid-80's out (what's up w/that?), so I decided to break up a mp run into 2 segments.  Ran 4 miles (6:56,7:00,6:56,6:54), drank from the spicket and then did another 3 miles (6:54,6:53,6:50), took another water break and then went 2.25 miles home.  Achilles still a bit sore even after a day off. 

Ran 7 miles real slow- did not feel great. 

Broke out a new pair of asics.  Ran 8 miles in them and felt no discomfort in the achilles.  May use them for Saturday's marathon.  This is not a marathon I'll be racing- just hope to use it as a training run.  20 moderately firm and from there decide whether to run/walk or hold pace to the end.  Ran total of 8.

So...I'm attempting my first marathon "training run" ever.  I think I've done 6-7 marathons and always with a taper in the "race mode".  Hartford (40 minutes away) Marathon falls on a Saturday and my wife's running the 1/2, so thought I'd use this as an experiment in preparation for my race marathon in November (Philly).  My new shoes came in earlier this week and they are tremendously easier on my achilles- I think my achilles issues this summer are a shoe issue.  It's been tough over the past year or two figuring out my shoe situation.  Every time a shoe begins to get comfortable, the model gets retired.  I haven't been happy with trainers for a while (since the Saucony Trigons disappeared) and now my race shoes have been discontinued (Saucony Tangents).  Ordered a couple pairs and the ones I think I'll go with for Saturday are a bit heavier (10 ounce) than I've used for marathon, but being a training run I want a little more support- Asic ds-trainers. 

Anyway, wanted to get a short mp run in before Saturday.  Went to the track and did a 1-mile warm-up and 3 mp miles- 6:50,6:47,6:21.  The last one was firm, but felt relatively controlled.  I'm not sure if the shoes are fully broken in for Saturday, yet they felt good.  Now, I'll take a couple days off and hope for the best.  My only goal for Saturday is to get a decent slow mp (7-7:30) for 20miles and anything faster or beyond 20-miles in that mode is bonus.  If I start to hurt (achilles), I'll be more than willing to walk/run the 2nd half, so as not to do any damage, but I think I'm turning a corner. 

Ran the Hartford Marathon as a training run for Philly in 5 weeks.  I was a bit nervous for 2 reasons- 1) I have not completed a 20-mile run since March  2) My achilles have been acting up all summer.

I decided to stick with the 3:15 pace group and hang with them as long as I felt healthy.  This would get me a good slow mp run in- my longest mp run this Fall has been 9 miles and even that has been broken up as tempo or interval training.  My achilles were sore for the first two miles and were never again an issue.  I stuck with the "3:15ers" through 16 miles (even catching back up w/them after a potty break) and was thrilled by having held a 7:20 pace for all that time.  The only negative was that I was running in a new pair of shoes and had developed a major blister by mile six (bigger than a silver dollar).  At about 16.5 miles I saw a puddle in a neighborhood driveway and decided to take of shoes/socks and soak for a bit.  Jumped back on the course and kept a nice easy pace until mile 22 (8:30-40ish).  At mile 22 I stopped again to address the blister + stretch and then decided to pick it up for a mile to see how the legs were- ran miles 23 and 24 at 7:40 pace.  Stopped again at the end of 24 to stretch and rub my "hot foot".  Cruised in with a time on my watch of 3:35:14- happy with the run!  The best part is, besides the blister, I did not beat myself up, so hope to put in a few extra 70 mile weeks and another 20-miler before Philly. 

My wife ran the half and finished barely over 2 hours- not bad for a mom of 6!  She loved the course and was happy with her time. Overall, a great day!

Mad blister on my left forefoot, so only ran .75 before shutting it down.

I've been limping around with a painful blister now since Saturday, but couldn't stand it any longer. Decided to gut out a 6.25 mile run- painful on the foot, yet nice to get a little exercise in. Not really ready for road running again, yet it's vastly improved since the weekend.

Ran 8.5 miles @ about 8:45 pace.  Blister hurts, yet definitely on the mend.  My 12-year-old pr'd by a minute in cross-country and my 13-year-old pr'd by 15 seconds- 14:51 and 16:12 for 1.9 miles.  Just logging for future reference. 

Think I've figured out my blister issues- not so much the need to break in the shoes, but new brand seems to be a 1/2 size too big.  I had duct tape on my feet today and could feel the insert sliding at least a 1/4 inch.  Ordered two new pairs a 1/2 size down and hoping this will correct the issue- good thing is that this brand does not annoy my achilles. 

Ran 3 miles firm (6:30,6:23,6:30) and then jogged another 4.5 at 8:45 pace.  The feet were hot from sliding, so slowed things down not to irritate them more.  Hoping things will straighten out soon!

Did weights at the gym followed by TM- 2 mile warm-up and then 6:27 pace until my blister couldn't stand it anymore (5 miles)- 7 miles total.  If time permits, I may get a 2nd run in- hoping to get a couple 70mile weeks before a 2-week taper for Philly. 

7 miles- blister's still irritating me a bit. 

Noon:  5 miles on TM- slowly.

Evening:  4 miles on TM- 9ish pace.  It may take a while to shake the blister on my forefoot.

Quick weight workout at the gym + TM- 2 mile warm-up and then 5 miles @ 6:27 pace. 

3-miles on TM at the gym.

5-miles on TM at home. 

Blister improving very slowly.

Dilemma...would like to get at least one 20-miler in before the Philly Marathon in three weeks.  Decided to take off yesterday to see if the blister would dry out for a distance run to be more tolerable.  Got up today, laced up, and the blister feels exactly the same.  Within a mile of running the forefoot was already burning.  Realizing 2.5 hours on the foot was not going to happen, I shifted gears quickly and decided to just run hard for an hour through the hills.  If it's going to hurt, might as well get as far as I can in a limited amount of time on the foot- mind over matter!  Did 8.5 w/an overall pace of 6:58- fastest mile (6) in 6:40, slowest mile (3) in 7:29, and last 1.5 miles @ 6:55 pace before jogging the final mile slowly back to the house- 9.5 miles total and hope to get a 20-miler in on Sunday or Monday- we'll see. 

So, on Saturday we received 21 inches of snow here in the NW corner of CT!  By evening we lost power, along with about 99% of the western state.  Took a couple days off from running and then did 13 yesterday.  It was a little spooky running my routes due to the sound of snapping branches in the middle portion of my run which is a road that cuts through Whites Woods.  There were a few power lines down in that area and slung over poles with clamps to keep them out of the road.  Anyway, here's the breakdown of my run...

- 2 mile warm-up

- 5 mile tempo (6:25, 6:29, 6:37, 7:06, 7:02)- the last 2 miles were tough in that it was mostly an uphill climb- felt really good- first pain free run since last April (Boston)

- jogged .75

- 3 mile tempo (6:53, 6:39, 6:44)- my hope was to do another 5 mile tempo, but my blister opened up on the 3rd mile of this tempo.  Jogged the rest to keep from ripping it too much.

Ran 13 miles total.  Power came on an hour ago, so I'm able to log it and hope to get a couple firm tempo runs in between now and Philly.